On the eve of the last night of 2008, and 22 days before Barack Obama assumes office, some 64 people crowded into the social hall at Sonoma’s Trinity Episcopal Church to respond to the President-elect’s invitation to communities, extended by the Obama-Biden Transition Project, to express their views and offer their ideas, stories and “collective wisdom and experience” regarding an issue vital to all – health care.
Hosted by Bill Boerum, who introduced the event as totally non-partisan – “I’m a Republican,” he said, “but I voted for Obama.” – the gathering represented a “grass roots” collection of people from all facets of the community as well as interested guests. There were no speakers and the only agenda was suggested by a set of questions offered by the Transition Project.
For those in the room unaware of the grim facts, a “Participant Guide for Health Care Community Discussions” provided pertinent statistics, such as “Medical errors result in as many as 100,000 deaths per year in U.S. hospitals.” Yet, “The U.S. spent $412 per capita on health care administration and insurance in 2003 – nearly six times as much as other developed countries.” In bold type, the guide states, “Over 45 million Americans have no health insurance.”
The guide asked questions for communities to consider, ranging from, “What do you perceive is the biggest problem in the health system” to “How can public policy promote healthier lifestyles?” When Boerum opened the floor to discussion, participants one by one painted a picture of a broken health care system.
Albert Fiske, a member of Physicians for a National Health Program, said there were many who were interested in a national health care program, but without figuring out how to pay for it, it won’t happen.
Sonoma City Councilmember Joanne Sanders, a small business owner, said if there were a government provided health plan, it should eliminate workers’ comp. “It should all be rolled into one.”
Sonoma City Councilmember Laurie Gallian, who works at Sonoma Charter School, said her concern is health care for children. “We need preventive health care. I would like to see some sort of program that would cover the children of our country.”
Someone said the health care system is run by the insurance companies and the drug companies. “And this is the first thing we’ve got to get rid of.” Another said, “In England, they pay the doctors to keep the people healthy.”
Gina Cuclis, a member of the Sonoma Valley Health Care District’s Strategic Planning Committee, said, “We’re talking about tweaking certain areas, but the whole way we do health care in the country does not work.”
Patricia Talbot, chief executive officer of the Sonoma Valley Community Health Center, said, “Employers can’t handle this. Our premiums have gone up 25 percent in the last couple of years.”
Arnie Riebli, businessman and board member of the Sonoma Valley Health Care District, cited two problems: “The cost of malpractice insurance, and the litigiousness of society.”
Napa physician Tim Smith responded that he’d been sued regularly for the last 10 years. “It’s not only the malpractice cost,” he said, “every test we order, we order to cover our butt. You can’t imagine how far that ripples out. Physicians don’t want to go into practices where there’s a high risk of being sued.”
Some mentioned the cost of premiums, some mentioned special interest groups and campaign financing, some suggested health care needs to be redefined, another suggested a study of other countries in which health care works.
When a notetaker reviewed the list of comments, Boerum directed the assembly to break into small groups where they were to work out individual questions and come up with individual stories. The groups buzzed intently over their assigned questions for the next hour.
The results of these groups work will be collated over the next few weeks, and submitted back to the Obama team.
